FREEDOM IN CHRIST

Every emotion and action has their existence rooted in a thought.  A thought is intrinsically harmless, but whenever we pause to consider the thought through the eyes of the flesh, we give power to the thought. 

Whether a negative or a positive outcome results from our meditation upon the thought, the power given to the thought by way of the flesh leads to a deceptive view of ourselves and the world around us.  Our identity is not found in a fleshly analysis of our thoughts and surroundings; our identity is found in the love and the cross of Christ.  But, when we leave our identity in Christ, we give the enemy space to creep into our lives, where he quietly begins to construct a spiritually destructive wall within us and around our minds, known as a stronghold. 

A stronghold is an area of safety and advantage held by a force involved in the battle.  As Christians, we have been given the mind of Christ and the victory of Christ, who is our Strong Tower.  However, when we choose to not defend the ground and the Godly stronghold that Christ has already won and established within us, we lay a foundation for Satan to set up a safe place within our minds.  As a created being, Satan does not know our thoughts, but he and his fallen servants are able to observe human behavior and pick up on our active patterns.  Since our actions and emotions are driven by our thoughts, Satan is able to infer our thoughts by simple observation.  He uses this against us by patiently waiting for a weak moment to pour his deception into our minds.  Once we dwell upon the deceptive thought with the feeble mind of our flesh, we are trapped within the bounds of Satan’s stronghold.  The ability of an army to thrive and prevail in the battle relies on the reality, the safety, and the supplication of the stronghold.  By dwelling on the thought in the flesh instead of releasing the thought to God, we feed and supply Satan’s spiritual stronghold within us.

Even though Christ removes our sin nature and gives us His spirit nature when we become a Christian, we still deal with the presence of the flesh and the desires, patterns, and habits associated with the old self.  Because of this, strongholds can be established by the footprint from our environment, traumatic experiences, ongoing temptation, etc.  Our flesh knows no other way but to identify with and receive some sort of false security within the imprint of the old self.  Whether an addiction, anxiety, busyness, popularity, success, acceptance, control, etc., everyone has a spiritual stronghold.  Satan will use any area or observed weakness within our lives to distract us from spending time with God and establishing a real, living relationship with God.  This only leads to a strengthened sin/confess cycle.  However, in Christ, we are not defined by our former sin nature and defeating cycles, but we must be careful to not allow a new stronghold of self-effort to be launched.  Within the fleeting power of self-effort, we experience an exhausting mismatch between our outer spiritual appearance and our inward spiritual reality.  Behavior modification will only magnify our depravity apart from God.  But, within this brokenness, God is able to intervene and reveal His power that is greater than both the flesh and the temporary ruler of this world.  In our brokenness and weakness, He is made strong. 

In Christ, we have already died to the power of the flesh and of the demonic realm; we are in Christ and have victory in Christ.  We do not overcome this battle by fighting in our own power but by standing in Christ’s power.  This opens our eyes to the responsibility that we have as Christians to deliberately submit our lives to God and daily renew our minds.  We must come before God with a teachable spirit so that God can release and use the power and the blessings that He has already placed inside each of His children.  We have been given the mind of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; therefore, we can choose to live in the spirit and fortify our minds with the strength of Christ, who has the power to break every stronghold and hide us within the strong shelter of His arms.

Through the deception of the evil one, sin entered God’s creation and broke our oneness with God.  Our perspective shifted from God to ourselves, and we became self-centered slaves to sin, which caused instant spiritual death and leads to eventual physical death.  Without our original, direct fellowship with God, we became eternally bound to a sin nature.  Within the confines of this sin nature, we do whatever we feel and sense as if we are free, when in reality we are controlled by a nature that has blinded us to the truth.  But, Christ came to give sight to the spiritually blind and redeem mankind; He gives us instant spiritual life and the promise of an eternal resurrection to life. 

As a Christian, we have had our sin nature replaced by a spirit nature and have the Holy Spirit living within us.  Although temptation and sin are still present in this world, we are spiritually dead to sin.  In Christ, we now have a spirit nature that gives us an eternal perspective.  We do not have two natures warring within us.  We still have our fleshly tendencies due to the scars of the past and the deception of the evil one, but we now have a choice to either yield to the flesh or to the spirit. 

Struggling with sin is not a sign that we are not a Christian but a sign that we have chosen to place our identity within the world instead of within Christ.  At first Satan deceives us into meeting our needs within the world and then traps us by making us believe that we can overcome our patterns of sin in our own strength; he knows this leads to exhaustion and defeat, causing us to remain blinded by the flesh.  But, Jesus gave Himself as our sacrifice and empowers us to stand firm in His divine victory, not fight in the flesh for our own victory.  A fleshly weakness needs to be overcome by some power that is beyond the realm of the flesh.  This power is found within the loving, holy sacrifice of Christ who not only works within us but also reveals Himself and reaches out to us through the body of believers.  Therefore, Satan’s desire is to isolate us and bring us under his power of deception, but as a Christian, we have been given the mind of and the power of Christ; He lives in us.  We must put on the mind of Christ every day and renew our own minds by aligning our will with His will. 

When we understand our sealed identity in Christ, we choose to relinquish the power of the past and release the power of Christ. Through the victory of Christ, the chains of deception and of the past are broken, and we have every right and power to command life and freedom to reign in our lives in the name of Jesus.

There are three overarching worldviews offered by the world system. These are animism, modernism, and postmodernism. These were developed by and are currently influenced by human wisdom. However, Christians have a separate worldview, which is based on divinely revealed truth, or Spirit wisdom, that will never change and is not limited by time.
Before the universe and time were created, the Trinity was already eternally existent. Along with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the help of the Son, God sovereignly created the universe, the angels, and the human race. He made one human race and three divisions of angels, which were each led by Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer was considered to be the most beautiful of all the angels, and in his pride, he desired to become God. Lucifer and the angels whom he was over were banished from Paradise and sent into the world, which is inhabited by humans who are a little lower in status than the angels. This demotion continued and still continues to feed the pride of Lucifer, who has declared his mission to be the spiritual death and destruction of mankind.

Due to his own experience, Lucifer was aware of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life; therefore, his tactic is to deceive and distort the truth of God’s design in order to shift the worldview and the outlook of the human race. The worldviews rooted within the world are ever-changing because they are birthed from the ultimate distorter and destroyer. When speaking to Eve in the garden, he filtered God’s spoken truth through a twist of the truth and an inflection of doubt in order to change the view of God, self, and needs. When this worldview was accepted and the doubt was acted upon, the fall of mankind was brought about. But, God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present; before time, He had already provided His Son to redeem mankind. After God’s redemptive plan was executed in victory through Christ, Jesus ascended to once again be with the Father, and the Holy Spirit was sent into the world. Because of this, the believers of the human race have been raised up with Christ, higher than the angels; we are Christ’s church, and we can know the mind of Christ.

But, we are still fleshly present in this world, which is under the temporary but very present reign of Satan who is still seeking to destroy lives and distort worldviews through alterations of the eyes, the flesh, and our pride. Satan is a created being and does not have access to the ever-presence, power, and knowledge of God, so he has to deploy his angels to wreak havoc through any means upon the earth and on the inhabitants therein. Through active belief and faith in Christ, we are protected by the hand and wisdom of God; He covers us. Only when we choose to not put on the armor of Christ do we willfully step outside of the protection of Christ; we open ourselves to an even broader aspect of Satan’s power to destroy.

When we view our lives through God’s wisdom, we are able to clearly see the reality of and the hate within the demonic realm and the redemptive love of Christ. We see people as being image-bearers of God and are able to look beyond the scattered sin patterns of a person and see the root cause as the prince of this world. This not only invokes a Godly compassion on others but also instills an inward desire for God to inspect our hearts and our worldview. Being continually connected to God through daily and specific prayer allows us to consistently keep our worldview in check and guard our minds from deception. We invite and enable God to remove any impurities from and open up any blind spots within our spiritual sight. Through Christ’s victory, we are able to stand firm against the true executor of evil and deflect his deception. Christ has overcome, and in Him, so do we.

Faith in Christ is necessary for one to begin the Christian walk, but faith is deeper than mere belief in the existence of Jesus. Faith involves an element of movement, which hinges on a conscious, daily choice and interaction with the Father. So, we must be careful in where or upon what we choose to ground our faith. We can either falsely move forward with faith in our feelings, which are controlled by circumstances, or we can truly move forward with faith in the reality of who Christ is and what God has revealed through scripture, which is divine truth. Feelings are misleading and ever-changing, but God’s word is firm and eternally consistent. Even though we cannot foresee life’s trials and triumphs, we are called to deny ourselves, including our feelings, and move forward in faith because we have been provided with solid, grounded truth as our trustworthy foundation. Christians do not have a blind faith. We were never asked to take a leap, be positive, and hope for the impossible; instead, we are asked to daily believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him, who is able to do the impossible and has shown His faithfulness. This involves an intentional effort to discern the voice of God as He reveals the individual steps for us to take in life. In His sovereignty, God has stretched out a pre-ordained path for each of us, and He is lovingly calling for us to follow His voice and walk with Him as He mercifully lights our individual steps and gives us the grace and courage to follow through.

As we saw in this past week’s memory verse of Ephesians 1:3, we have been given the entirety of every good gift and inheritance that God offers us as His children through Jesus Christ. We do not have to work to achieve God’s spiritual blessing, freedom, and forgiveness. They were each unconditionally granted to us so that we will be able to walk confidently in Christ without restraint, free from the burdensome weight of sin and the struggle of our own futile, self-righteous efforts. So, whenever we sin as a result of trying to have our needs met within the earthly realm, we do not have to beg God for forgiveness, hide from Him, nor take on the sin as our identity. Our sins do not identify us nor do they need to provoke us to move into a sin-confess cycle. As God’s children, we are identified in Christ, so if the divine Creator does not label us according to our sins, then neither should we create a sin label for ourselves. Sin does hinder our relationship, but God has already made the first move and extended forgiveness to us. We can boldly run to the Father with a repentant heart and seek His restorative power. Our Father God grants each of us unmerited and unlimited favor, grace, and love; in Him, there is no condemnation.

Being truly free in Christ is centered upon our understanding of who we are in Christ.  As humans, we were each given a natural desire to be secure, have significance, and be accepted.  Originally, these were all holy and wholly fulfilled in the Creator to created relationship.  After the fall of man into sin, that relationship was eternally altered, but our original God-given needs and desires remained the same.  However, sin repels a holy Creator, so we are born already distanced from God, with tendencies to go our own way and seek false fulfillment for those needs and desires.  When we realize that those God-given needs (originally envisioned and crafted within us by the God of the Universe) can only be perfectly met by the Designer, then we will be able to be freed from false expectations of the surrounding items, people, and accomplishments to completely satisfy our needs.  We can then see the freedom and full satisfaction that was restored by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who opens all relational doors to the Father.  As the story of Lazarus (John 11:1-44) conveys, our grave has been divinely opened, and we must step out and allow Christ’s hands of love to release us and fulfill our needs, thereby removing the world’s grave clothes that so ensnare and limit us.

Belief (Faith), at its foundation, is a choice. My wife recently shared a quote with me that says “It doesn’t take any more effort to believe that one can than to believe that one cannot.” However, in the Bible, there is a significant difference between Faith and Hope. Hope is based on circumstances that we desire to see. A wish that somehow things will turn out the way we want, but Faith in the Bible is based on promises; specifically the promises God has made to his children in the scriptures. One of my favorite verses has come to be 2 Peter 1:3-4

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

So it is placing faith in these “great and precious promises” that we are allowed to participate with God and enjoy the benefits of believe him. Recently, in our Freedom in Christ study, we compiled a list of promises that we associated with doubts and fears that are common to everyone. My wife typed up that list, which I’m providing to you below. Read over these every day and remember that God has ALREADY provided “everything we need for life and godliness”!

• Why should I worry about the future when God holds the future and tomorrow will have enough worries of its own. Matthew 6:34
• Why should I be consumed with thoughts about food for man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the son of God and my heavenly Father already knows I have need of food and clothing. Matthew 6:31
• Why should I concern myself with how I look in my clothes when God says my body is more than clothing. Matthew 6:27
• Why should I insist on working out for my physical body to be “good enough” when my body is already a temple of the Holy Spirit.
• Why should I believe that God is distant when he has promised to complete the work he has begun in me. Phil. 1:6
• Why should I feel that I have to perform and achieve for God’s acceptance when God made Jesus who was sinless to be sin for me so that in him I might become the righteousness of God. 2Cor. 5:21
• Why should I feel God will tell me no to a promise when all of the promises of God are yes in Jesus. 2 Cor. 1:20
• Why should I feel that I am alone when Jesus said, I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20) and that he will never leave or forsake me. (Heb. 13:5)
• Why should I believe I’m worthless when Jesus died for me to have eternal life with the Father. John 3:16
• Why should I feel depressed when I can recall to my mind and therefore have hope, because of the Lords great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lam.3:22,23
• Why should I ever be in bondage for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17) and It is for freedom sake that Christ has set me free. (Gal. 5:1)
• Why should I believe that any of my efforts will make me more accepted by God or anyone else when I am complete in Christ. (Col. 2:10)
• Why should I believe that the enemy’s plan can prosper against me when I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)
• Why should I believe that God isn’t listening to me when I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 2:18)
• Why should I believe the thought patterns of the enemy when I am free forever from condemnation. (Rom. 8:1-2)

*Adapted from Neil T. Andersons “Who I Am in Christ” p.273

• Father God I renounce the lie that you are distance and uninterested in me. i joyfully accept the truth that You are intimate and involved.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are insensitive and uncaring toward me. I joyfully accept the truth that you are kind and compassionate.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are stern and demanding of me. I joyfully accept the truth that You are accepting and filled with joy and love.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are passive and cold toward me. I joyfully accept the truth that you are warm and affectionate toward me.
• Father God I renounce the lie you are absent or too busy for me.  I joyfully accept the truth that you are always with me and available for me.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you impatience, angry, or never satisfied with what I do.  I joyfully accept the truth that you are patience and slow to anger with me.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are mean, cruel, or abusive toward me.  I joyfully accept the truth that you are loving and gentle and protective of me.
• Father God I renounce the lie you are trying to take all the fun out of my life.   I joyfully accept the truth that you are trustworthy and want to give me a full life. I know your will is good, perfect and acceptable for me.
• Father God I renounce the lie you are controlling or manipulative of me.  I joyfully accept the truth that you are full of grace and mercy, giving me freedom to fail.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are condemning are unforgiving. I joyfully accept the truth that you are tenderhearted and forgiving of me.
• Father God I renounce the lie that you are a nit-picking demanding perfectionist.  I joyfully accept the truth that you are committed to my growth and that you are  growing me as your child.